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Artemis
In Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: Αρτεμις) is the Olympian goddess of hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, childbirth, archery, plague, the moon, and the protectress of young women until they marry. She is a child of Zeus and Leto, along with her twin brother Apollo. Artemis is a virgin goddess and, thus, never married and has no children. Artemis' sacred attributes include her bow and quiver of arrows, hunting spears, a torch, a stag, quails, partridges, the palm tree, and the cypress tree. Artemis is equated with Diana in Roman mythology, Bastet in Egyptian mythology, and Artume in Etruscan mythology. Mythology Birth When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant with Zeus' children, she banned Leto from giving birth on any firm land. Because of this, Leto had to wander the earth trying to find a place to rest and give birth. During her wanderings, she was threatened by Tityos, who attempted to rape her, and Python. Eventually, Leto found the barren and floating island of Delos, which was actually her transformed sister Asteria. It was on this island, under the shade of a palm tree, where Leto gave birth to her twins, Apollo and Artemis. Artemis was born without causing her mother pain. However, Leto struggled for nine days and nights to give birth to Apollo. Many goddesses were also on Delos to aid Leto in her birth, inclduing Dione, Rhea, Themis, and Amphitrite. After her own birth, Artemis assisted her mother in giving birth to her brother. Because of this, Artemis became a goddess of childbirth and patron goddess of midwives. After Apollo and Artemis were born, they returned to kill Tityos and Python who had threatened their mother while she was searching for a place to give birth. Six wishes When Artemis was three years old, she asked her father to grant her six wishes: #To always remain a virgin. #To have many names to set her apart from her brother. #To be the light-bringer. #To have a bow and arrow and a knee-length tunic to hun.t #To have sixty Oceanides to be her choir. #To have twenty nymphs as handmaidens to watch her dogs and bow while she rested. Actaeon Actaeon was a mortal hunter who happened to stumble upon a spring where Artemis was bathing while he was hunting. Rather than turn and leave, Actaeon continued to gaze upon the goddess and eventually fell in love with her. After being noticed by the goddess, Artemis transformed him into a stag and set his own hunting dogs upon him, who killed him. Orion Orion was Artemis' close hunting companion. One day, Orion boasted that he could kill any animal on Earth. Gaea, Mother Earth herself, heard that boast and sent a giant scorpion to kill him. The Aloadae The Aloadae were twin giants and sons of Poseidon who attempted to storm Mount Olympus. They boasted that they would take Hera and Artemis as their wives and trapped Ares in a jar. In order to defeat the giants, Artemis transformed herself into a stag and ran between the twins. Since they were also great hunters, they both shot at the stag with their bow and arrows. However, Artemis was swift and dodged their arrows, which then struck one another so each giant killed the other. Callisto Callisto was a mortal attendant of Artemis who took a vow of chastity. Zeus fell in love with Callisto and, in order to seduce her, disguised himself as Artemis and took advantage of Callisto. Enraged at this, Artemis transformed Callisto into a bear after she admitted later that Zeus had seduced her. As a bear, she later gave birth to a human son, Arcas. Arcas was also a hunter and almost killed his mother, but Zeus prevented that by turning both Arcas and Callisto into constellations. Agamemnon and Iphigenia After Agamemnon killed a stag which was sacred to Artemis and boasted that he was a better hunter than her, she punished him by calming the winds when he wished to sail to Troy to begin the Trojan War. Calchas, a seer, advised him to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. When Agamemnon was about to do as such, Artemis saved the girl and Agamemnon sacrificed a deer instead. Niobe Niobe was a mortal queen of Thebes who boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children while Leto only had two. When Artemis and Apollo heard this impiety, Apollo killed her seven sons and Artemis killed her seven daughters. The twin gods used poisoned arrows to kill the children. A devastated Niobe was transformed to stone as she wept. Atalanta After Atalanta had been left in the wilderness as an infant, she was saved by Artemis who sent a female bear to nurse her and then she was raised by hunters. After growing up, Atalanta participated in the Calydonian boar hunt. The Calydonian boar had been sent by Artemis to ravage Calydon because King Oeneus had forgotten her at the harvest sacrifices. In the hunt, Atalanta drew the first blood and was awarded the prize of the skin. She hung it in a sacred grove as a dedication to Artemis. Aura Aura was a virgin goddess who claimed that Artemis' body was too womanly to be a true virgin. For her hubris, Artemis caused her to be raped by Dionysus. After this, she became pregnant with a set of twins and she was driven into a mad frenzy. She began viciously killing men and, after the birth of her twin sons, she ate one of them whole. Artemis intervened and saved her other son and Zeus turned Aura into a breeze. Epithets *''Aeginaea'' ("huntress of chamois" or "wielder of the javelin") *''Aetole'' *''Agrotera'' as the patron goddess of hunters *''Alphaea'' *''Amarynthia'' *''Anaitis'' *''Cynthia'' since she was born on Mount Cynthus on Delos *''Kourotrophos'' as the nurse of youths *''Locheia'' as the goddess of childbirth and midwives *''Lygodesma'' ("willow-bound") *''Phoebe'' *''Potnia Theron'' as the patron of wild animals Category:Greek mythology Category:Greek deities Category:Greek gods